Bowling with the Fam

 I've been trying to get photos of the kids, as you know, to put on our wall.  I feel I've been successful and have photos being enlarged as of today, but I had to share these ones of Everett being silly:

 He is a handsome, silly boy!!

Our Daisy, getting into stuff, as usual:

 Babies who climb should also come with a healthy dose of fear.  Fear is learned, sadly.  This baby certainly didn't come with it.

Enjoying some pudding at Grandpa's house:

 Shoosh, even (or maybe, especially?) covered in goo, that is the most adorable face I've ever seen!

And, Saturday was pretty close to a perfect day.  We took the family bowling, then out to lunch and it was just nice.  I sure love being with my crazy bunch!

That is me with the low score.  I'm blaming it on a morning arm workout that left me feeling weak.  Yeah, that's it.  

A Smile

 Hey look, I got a good shot of my Daisy baby:

She makes faces sometimes that totally reminds me of photos of me at that age.  Here are some.  What do you think?

Anyway.  Enough about me.

This is pretty much a constant around here:

Having siblings around is a good way to teach about sharing.  Or, how to get your own way.  One of the two.

I know a good portion of the country has been having crazy blizzards and freezing temperatures, which makes me all the more grateful for this:

 It has been so sunny and warm lately.  Winter, please don't trick us by surprising us with a late freeze or snow.  Snow would not be fun right now.

Daisy found sister's lipstick:

 Makes me smile.  Silly girl.

And, welcome to bedtime at our home:

 The best and worst part of the day if you ask me.

Sunday Morning

 I know, I'm on a post roll, huh?  Mmmm, sounds delicious... Truthfully, coming home from a good vacation sends me into a "I want to be on permanent vacation blues".  I'm pretty sure it's a real thing.  Look it up.  So, as part of my anti-depression self medication, I'm focusing on doing things for myself.  And, my blog is for me.  I enjoy writing and sharing photos.  It is my creative happy spot.  I think my treatment is working.  Life is getting happier by the day.  :)

So, I need new photos of the kids on my wall.  I attempted to take some on Sunday morning.  My first effort was thwarted by the wind.  And, Daisy simply refused to even sit still and only threw crusties my way.  I'll have to try again.  BUT, I did get some good shots of my beautiful kids, see:

I can't use these to put on the wall, it looks like my boy has a floating head with his white shirt, but isn't he a handsome guy?

Gosh, Lu, could you look any sweeter?  We all know now that she doesn't like to be called Lu, but we do it anyway.  And, she is pretty sweet.

A Pinata

The rest of Everett's birthday: 

 Dad did the cake.  My man, he is a man of many skills.  And, buttercream gets very droopy.  Oh, and I just can't eat John Deere green frosting.  Can't do it.

This is a sign of a happy birthday.  Lots of presents (and a grinning boy):

He's been asking for a pinata for months.  He got one.

And other random photos that I love:

This photo is so typical Lu.  Her hair is loose and flowing (some might call it "crazy" or "knotty").  She's wearing sticker earrings.  She's got the remnants of lipstick all over her face.  And, she's wearing a dress.  Sleeveless is better.  I've tried to fight the battle and I have lost.  I will collect my casualties and move on.  She's reading a book to her baby, which is also just adorable.  Oh, and she's informed us her name is not Lulu, or Lu.  "Just Lainey!"  Sad, sad.

And, the babe?

I've put her to work.

She's growing by the day, just look at this face!

She's a sweetie.

Birthday Boy

 Cake for breakfast?  Why not?

My dear Boy,

Happy Birthday!  Today you are 5!  FIVE!  That is such a big number!  We love having you in our home.  Thanks for bringing some balance!  And there is no question, you are all things boy.  You love anything that moves.  You tell me about every day that you want to ride in a hot air balloon.  You are still waiting for the day that our race car arrives.  You tell me how convenient it will be to be able to get places really fast.  You are our little engineer.  You love to take things apart and put them back together and figure out how things work.  Your dad is so proud you are following in his footsteps.  You are smart and happy and inquisitive and handsome and clever and curious and funny and just plain wonderful.  We love you lots and lots!

Love,

Your Momma

Happy Place

 We've had an awesome week, and I'm excited to share it with you!  It's a long one!

We've been at Disneyland all of last week.  Oh, we love Disney!  We love to visit warm California!  We love to get away from the norm and have fun together!  And bonus!  We love to spend time with family!  My sister and her kids traveled along with us and we were joined by my parents and my brother's family for a portion of the week.

Let's get on with the photos.  First, you can't take a Utahn to California and not go to the beach.  We misjudged the timing of the sun, but darkness did not stop my kids from getting good and wet.  And sandy.  Always lots of sandy.

I think the highlight was watching a family of sea lions swimming around the pier.  They were putting on quite the show for us!

Monday morning - California Adventure!

We had lots of good map readers:

 That was while we were waiting for riders on the Tower of Terror.  My girls were a bit anxious about "scary" rides in the beginning, but by the end of the week, they had warmed up and were frightened of nothing!  They were begging to try Tower of Terror.  Ok, they refused to try Screamin', but honestly, I think they would have enjoyed that too if they tried it.  Ellie particularly has become a thrill seeker!  It was so fun to have excited kids about all the rides.

Sleeping kids in the stroller, a common occurrence:

 Actually, that may have been a rare moment where Daisy was actually happily chillin' in the stroller.  She got to the point where she hated the stroller and hated being with anyone else besides mom.  Like she would violently throw herself around (or out of the stroller) when she wasn't with mom.  I carried that baby for 5 days.  The little stinker.  It's a good thing she's cute.

We played a little fishing game, and Ellie, winner winner chicken dinner, won the "big" prize!  Goofy could not have gone to a better home.  She carried him around for the rest of the day, even taking him on rides, lucky dude.

Next day, Disneyland!

So fun to do Disney with cousins!

 Daisy missed out on meeting Mickey.  She was with Grandma and Grandpa while she snoozed a bit.

A good portion of us (but still missing 4):

Oh, sweet Mickey hugs:

Minnie too:

All the kids got bubble guns, which was a good amount of entertainment for all.  It was kind of funny, whenever a kid was using a bubble gun, other kids would come out of nowhere to pop the bubbles.  In fact, in this photo, I don't know the girl with the blue flower, popping bubbles.  Bubbles bring people together, I tell ya!

Mickey shaped everything!  Love it!

We ended Tuesday evening with a trip to Rainforest Cafe (thanks big bro!).  It was great fun, but the kids were so wasted!  You can't really tell, but three of my five are asleep in this photo:

Wednesday started with Daisy.  Duck, that is.  We had to introduce our favorite Daisys!

Photo with Daisy and Daisy.  Check.

 Daisy wasn't overly impressed, as you can tell, but she wasn't screaming either.  We'll take it.

Ellie driving:

 She looks like she's concentrating really hard there.  That was the one ride Ellie was not impressed with.  In fact, she hated it.  It was overwhelming to drive on her own.

Maren was loving it, though:

 Thank heavens we have a few more years before drivers licenses.

We caught the parade that afternoon.  Disney goes all out, that's for sure.

 A moment about Everett.  He didn't really love Disney.  Perhaps that was because we lost him a couple times.  Whoops!  Good news was that we quickly found him!  Really, it was a lot of walking for the little guy and he didn't like any of the fast, jerky rides we force him on.  He was complaining about walking and I was saying, "ya know, Disneyland is supposed to be the happiest place on earth!"  To which he replied, "No, it's the stupidest place on earth!"  :)  

And, for an almost five year old, everything is so real!  Disney does a fantastic job of telling their stories, and the kids believe.  We took him on Star Tours, and I had him all excited, "We get to go on a spaceship!"  In the middle of his spaceship ride he asked my sis, "Are we still in Disneyland?"

Sadly, half the family went on their way, but my sister and I were still here to play!  Day four, back to California Adventure.

I think Daisy spent the entire vacation just plain tired.  Sometimes even dirty concrete looks like a good bed:

 I look kind of tired and ornery in that photo, and I have to admit, I was.  ;)  My kids were pooped, and so was I.  We lasted until the afternoon, then we had to call it quits and have a little siesta:

Mandatory naps for all.

We were much happier when we went back later that evening for a little Animation Academy where we learned how to draw Olaf:

And then we met Elsa and Anna:

 Elsa got a quick hug from Lainey, but then she was done and wouldn't go near them.

Friday we went back to Disneyland for one last hurrah!  Once again, we napped in the afternoon which made a big difference.  We stayed late and watched the fireworks and rode Indiana Jones before returning to our hotel that evening.  No awesome photos to share!  After 5 days, we were thoroughly Disney-saturated!

We survived (barely) the ride home.  And, in case you didn't already know we were crazy, here's five little people with ice cream cones in the car:

And sometimes we have to get creative to fit us all in a hotel room:

And today, back to life, back to reality.  :(  Reality stinks.  Honestly, though, my kids are happy to be back in their comfortable space, particularly Daisy (who is currently making up for her lack of sleep - still asleep at 10am!).  I am already counting down to our next family vacation.